I finally managed to clean all the seeds from this year's crosses. I collected the seedpods in plastic cups in early October (some had started to open, so I was a bit too late) and let them dry at room temperature for several
weeks. Pods of some cultivars open nicely and almost all seeds fall of, others don't. For example, the pods of Queen Anne's have to be split open manually or crushed to release the seeds properly. Here is a list of the crosses that produced any seeds this
year. Lem's Monarch that I wrote about earlier was a disappointment as seed parent, none of the pollinations took. On the contrary, LM worked well as a pollen parent. Other disappointments were the poor fertility of Weissenburg, the double flowered hybrid
I bought this year. Only one cross to Weissenburg produced any seeds. The poor success of pollinations with Honigduft pollen was another unpleasant suprise.
1. Helsinki University X R. thomsonii (*)
2. Helsinki University
X Lem's Monarch (*)
3. Bellefontaine X Lem's Monarch
4. Bellefontaine X Dufthecke
5. Catawbiense Borsault X Honigduft
6. Haaga X Lem's Monarch
7. Mikkeli X Honigduft
8. Mikkeli X Lem's Monarch
9. (SFxPMAT1)
X Haagan keltainen
10. (SFxPMAT1) X (bvt X Lemonade)
11. Queen Anne's X Catawbiense Borsault (*)
12. Queen Anne's X Lem's Monarch (*)
13. Weissenburg X Kuutamo
Azalea crosses etc.
14. MM1 X Mustila oranssi
(*)
15. R. arborescens X MM1 (*)
16. Lemondrop X R. arborescens (*)
17. Haaga X MM1
From the crosses marked with (*) I have enough seeds to be given away. E-mail jpkrvi (at) yahoo.co.uk if you are
interested in obtaining any of these seeds.
MM1 = yellow-flowered luteum-like azalea grown by me from Mustila arboretum seed mix, pollen extremely fertile
Mustila oranssi = pollen from an unnamed bright orange-flowered azalea from Mustila arboretum